The evidence continues to mount, a sorry state of affairs when the governmnt and FOC continues to defend these farms.So glad we have Alex defending our precious wild salmon.

Lethal virus threatens wild salmon stocks ISA discovered in 4 species By Sean Sullivan, The Province November 4, 2011 3:04 AM A lethal salmon virus that could pose a new threat to B.C.'s prized Pacific salmon has been detected in four wild species, prompting fears about its effect on the multibilliondollar fishery.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is now conducting its own tests, as a group of U.S. senators say Canadian officials can't be trusted to identify the presence of the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus.

In a letter to Senate decisionmakers on Wednesday, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington and senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich of Alaska argued that the U.S. should conduct independent tests for the contagious disease that has decimated Atlantic salmon farms in Chile and Norway.

"We should not rely on another government - particularly one that may have a motive to misrepresent its findings - to determine how we assess the risk ISA may pose to American fishery jobs," the senators said.

Researchers at Simon Fraser University on Oct. 17 announced the virus was found in two of 48 sockeye smolts collected in B.C.'s Central Coast.

On Wednesday, biologist and salmon advocate Alexandra Morton learned that an ISA lab at the Atlantic Veterinary College in P.E.I. found evidence of the virus in three of 10 dead fish - a Chinook, coho and chum - she pulled from the Harrison River on Oct. 12.

"The terrible thing about the work that myself and [SFU researcher Rick] Routledge have done is that it's tiny," Morton told The Province. "We looked at 60 fish, and we got it in two different generations, 600 kilometres apart. That's a huge red flag."

ISA's effect on Pacific Salmon - if any - isn't known. This is

the first time the disease has been found in wild Pacific salmon, raising fears among advocates that the already stressed wild stocks could be further jeopardized.

A spokeswoman for Fisheries and Oceans said Morton's samples are now being tested in Canada's official ISA lab in Moncton, N.B.

New Westminster-Coquitlam MP Fin Donnelly raised the issue in Ottawa Thursday, calling on the government to develop an action plan to deal with the virus on Canada's West Coast.

"Concern is mounting both in British Columbia and the United States that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is not taking this threat seriously," he said.

Some have suggested that the virus may have come from Atlantic salmon eggs imported to local fish farms from Chile or Norway.

Salmon farmers have been quick to shoot down those claims, as has the Canadian government.

"In recent years we tested over 5,000 wild and farmed B.C. salmon without a single case of confirmed ISA in B.C.," said Randy Kamp, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

Chile, a major producer of farmed Atlantic salmon, has seen its wild fish stocks decimated by ISA over the last four years.

You can bet that if this virus wipes out the wild salmon on the Pacific coast like it has done in several other countries where fish farms are common, the Federal government will have to pay damages to First Nations, commercial fisherman, fish processing plants and any other group that receives an income from the fishing industry for many years to come.

The evidence continues to mount, a sorry state of affairs when the governmnt and FOC continues to defend these farms.So glad we have Alex defending our precious wild salmon.

Lethal virus threatens wild salmon stocks ISA discovered in 4 species By Sean Sullivan, The Province November 4, 2011 3:04 AM A lethal salmon virus that could pose a new threat to B.C.'s prized Pacific salmon has been detected in four wild species, prompting fears about its effect on the multibilliondollar fishery.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is now conducting its own tests, as a group of U.S. senators say Canadian officials can't be trusted to identify the presence of the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus.

In a letter to Senate decisionmakers on Wednesday, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington and senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich of Alaska argued that the U.S. should conduct independent tests for the contagious disease that has decimated Atlantic salmon farms in Chile and Norway.

"We should not rely on another government - particularly one that may have a motive to misrepresent its findings - to determine how we assess the risk ISA may pose to American fishery jobs," the senators said.

Researchers at Simon Fraser University on Oct. 17 announced the virus was found in two of 48 sockeye smolts collected in B.C.'s Central Coast.

On Wednesday, biologist and salmon advocate Alexandra Morton learned that an ISA lab at the Atlantic Veterinary College in P.E.I. found evidence of the virus in three of 10 dead fish - a Chinook, coho and chum - she pulled from the Harrison River on Oct. 12.

"The terrible thing about the work that myself and [SFU researcher Rick] Routledge have done is that it's tiny," Morton told The Province. "We looked at 60 fish, and we got it in two different generations, 600 kilometres apart. That's a huge red flag."

ISA's effect on Pacific Salmon - if any - isn't known. This is

the first time the disease has been found in wild Pacific salmon, raising fears among advocates that the already stressed wild stocks could be further jeopardized.

A spokeswoman for Fisheries and Oceans said Morton's samples are now being tested in Canada's official ISA lab in Moncton, N.B.

New Westminster-Coquitlam MP Fin Donnelly raised the issue in Ottawa Thursday, calling on the government to develop an action plan to deal with the virus on Canada's West Coast.

"Concern is mounting both in British Columbia and the United States that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is not taking this threat seriously," he said.

Some have suggested that the virus may have come from Atlantic salmon eggs imported to local fish farms from Chile or Norway.

Salmon farmers have been quick to shoot down those claims, as has the Canadian government.

"In recent years we tested over 5,000 wild and farmed B.C. salmon without a single case of confirmed ISA in B.C.," said Randy Kamp, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

Chile, a major producer of farmed Atlantic salmon, has seen its wild fish stocks decimated by ISA over the last four years.

As Sandy notes other forums are following this closely. Here is something posted earlier, written by the people who have the most to lose if indeed the lethal version of this virus is actually here in BC. Sorry, wasn't able to copy over the report links but perhaps others could.Just another reason to wait for the conclusive science before jumping off the Port Mann

No conclusive evidence of ISA virus in B.C. fish after independent retesting Thu, 2011-11-03 Independent tests at one of the world's top ISA virus research labs reanalyzed 48 samples of Pacific salmon and did not find conclusive evidence that any of the fish had ISA.

This week, Dr. Are Nylund at the University of Bergen (Norway) reanalyzed tests done last month on 48 Pacific salmon by Dr. Fred Kibenge at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI). After extensive re-testing, Nylund did not find conclusive evidence that the fish had the Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) virus.

Sampling for this virus is extremely sensitive, so Dr. Nylund tested and retested the samples. One of the samples was tested 33 times; in that sample he found one weak positive result and 32 negative results.

In a recent interview, of which Mainstream has obtained a copy, Dr. Nylund explained, "The test material we received was of poor quality, and all tests were negative except the one which was weakly positive. This means that I could not confirm the results from Kibenge, since he found two clearly positive findings and concluded that this had European origin."

Dr. Nylund continued, "This also means that a virus having genetic similarities with ISA or something totally different may be picked up by the test. Therefore we need to sequence/genotype the virus to provide serious comment on the origin."

He said the findings could represent a previously unknown type of Pacific Ocean virus.

"Not all ISA-type findings are described, and there are surely many we have not yet discovered," he said.

Nylund said that it's possible any newly-discovered virus could have its origins in ancient evolution.

"Today there are several examples of pathogens that are related and which have a North Pacific and a North Atlantic type. One example of this is the Paramyxo virus," he said. "The reason for this is that the salmon and some of its pathogens in the Pacific and Atlantic once had the same origin, but they have developed differently as they have been geographically isolated over a long time."

Thousands of farmed and wild salmon have been tested for the Infectious Salmon Anemia virus (ISAV), in British Columbia, including more than 1,200 in 2011 alone. All of those tests were negative and they show that to date, there is no ISAV in our fish, farmed or wild.

But two weeks ago anti-aquaculture activist Alexandra Morton claimed Pacific salmon collected by Simon Fraser University researchers had been infected with the European ISA virus. She made the claim before the tests were even concluded, spreading fear and concern without any basis in fact.

The fish were sent for re-testing to one of the world's top ISA virus research labs at the University of Bergen in Norway and those results do not support Dr. Kibenge's findings, nor do they give conclusive findings on the origin of the virus.

We are glad these tests were done, as they provide a good scientific control for the results announced publicly two weeks ago.

Another new lab report published by Ms. Morton indicates that Kibenge tested another batch of samples she submitted, and one of the 20 apparently showed a weak positive result.

However, Kibenge cautioned in his report that "the presence of ISA virus sequences in the tissue samples does not imply that the subject fish had ISA or that ISA is present in the area where the subject fish were collected from." Further genetic testing is again necessary to determine if the latest results from UPEI mean anything, or if the results were also skewed because of poor-quality samples.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is doing proper tests now to determine whether it can reach the same conclusions and will be investigating the chain of custody (scientific procedure for collecting and storing samples to prevent contamination).

We believe that it is more important than ever to wait for the lead agency on this file to give the final word on this issue, and for them to complete their battery of tests before jumping to any conclusions. We urge the CFIA scientists to quickly conclude their investigation and publish their findings.

Mainstream, along with the rest of the B.C. salmon farming industry, has offered to provide further samples for testing by CFIA and are advocating for more sampling and testing of our region's wild fish and for continuation of the surveillance program.

Interesting Dave. There is a lot of hysteria going on and fish virology is so far out of our knowledge range it's easy to get excited about tidbits of info that really don't mean anything specific to a virologist.

Nyland's comment that there is no reason to believe there couldn't be natural viruses in our wild fish that have similar RNA sequences to the Atlantic ISA virus and would come up positive in an ISA test. They know so little about fish viruses except for the ones that cause major disease problems....why look at fish virus that may be to a fish like a cold virus is to humans.

We need to relax and let independent CFIA do their jobs and tell us what's really going on. Unfortunately, it takes time to the proper science.

"The real issue here is proof versus risk," said McDade. "The risk here is real. Don't wait for 10 years until this is proven and we have no fish left."

And a letter in today's Windsor Star:

"That the virus has been identified as the European strain places salmon farms squarely in the firing line - over 90 per cent of B.C.'s salmon farming production is Atlantic salmon. Norwegian companies - who control over 90 per cent of B.C.'s salmon farms - should take their disease-ridden feedlots back home to Norway and foul their own nest if they must. Salmon feedlots are a cancer on our coasts and need to be ripped out - now."

As Sandy notes other forums are following this closely. Here is something posted earlier, written by the people who have the most to lose if indeed the lethal version of this virus is actually here in BC. Sorry, wasn't able to copy over the report links but perhaps others could.Just another reason to wait for the conclusive science before jumping off the Port Mann

No conclusive evidence of ISA virus in B.C. fish after independent retesting Thu, 2011-11-03 Independent tests at one of the world's top ISA virus research labs reanalyzed 48 samples of Pacific salmon and did not find conclusive evidence that any of the fish had ISA.

This week, Dr. Are Nylund at the University of Bergen (Norway) reanalyzed tests done last month on 48 Pacific salmon by Dr. Fred Kibenge at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI). After extensive re-testing, Nylund did not find conclusive evidence that the fish had the Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) virus.

Sampling for this virus is extremely sensitive, so Dr. Nylund tested and retested the samples. One of the samples was tested 33 times; in that sample he found one weak positive result and 32 negative results.

In a recent interview, of which Mainstream has obtained a copy, Dr. Nylund explained, "The test material we received was of poor quality, and all tests were negative except the one which was weakly positive. This means that I could not confirm the results from Kibenge, since he found two clearly positive findings and concluded that this had European origin."

Dr. Nylund continued, "This also means that a virus having genetic similarities with ISA or something totally different may be picked up by the test. Therefore we need to sequence/genotype the virus to provide serious comment on the origin."

He said the findings could represent a previously unknown type of Pacific Ocean virus.

"Not all ISA-type findings are described, and there are surely many we have not yet discovered," he said.

Nylund said that it's possible any newly-discovered virus could have its origins in ancient evolution.

"Today there are several examples of pathogens that are related and which have a North Pacific and a North Atlantic type. One example of this is the Paramyxo virus," he said. "The reason for this is that the salmon and some of its pathogens in the Pacific and Atlantic once had the same origin, but they have developed differently as they have been geographically isolated over a long time."

Thousands of farmed and wild salmon have been tested for the Infectious Salmon Anemia virus (ISAV), in British Columbia, including more than 1,200 in 2011 alone. All of those tests were negative and they show that to date, there is no ISAV in our fish, farmed or wild.

But two weeks ago anti-aquaculture activist Alexandra Morton claimed Pacific salmon collected by Simon Fraser University researchers had been infected with the European ISA virus. She made the claim before the tests were even concluded, spreading fear and concern without any basis in fact.

The fish were sent for re-testing to one of the world's top ISA virus research labs at the University of Bergen in Norway and those results do not support Dr. Kibenge's findings, nor do they give conclusive findings on the origin of the virus.

We are glad these tests were done, as they provide a good scientific control for the results announced publicly two weeks ago.

Another new lab report published by Ms. Morton indicates that Kibenge tested another batch of samples she submitted, and one of the 20 apparently showed a weak positive result.

However, Kibenge cautioned in his report that "the presence of ISA virus sequences in the tissue samples does not imply that the subject fish had ISA or that ISA is present in the area where the subject fish were collected from." Further genetic testing is again necessary to determine if the latest results from UPEI mean anything, or if the results were also skewed because of poor-quality samples.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is doing proper tests now to determine whether it can reach the same conclusions and will be investigating the chain of custody (scientific procedure for collecting and storing samples to prevent contamination).

We believe that it is more important than ever to wait for the lead agency on this file to give the final word on this issue, and for them to complete their battery of tests before jumping to any conclusions. We urge the CFIA scientists to quickly conclude their investigation and publish their findings.

Mainstream, along with the rest of the B.C. salmon farming industry, has offered to provide further samples for testing by CFIA and are advocating for more sampling and testing of our region's wild fish and for continuation of the surveillance program.

This is why anything out of Mortons mouth should be taken with a grain of salt.

In all respect if Alex was not there who would be working to get the truth out, certainly not the fish farm industry or some governments that are trying to cover this up.Some of the goings on at Cohen showed that.

Why do you think we here in British Columbia are any different than all the other countries that have had their wild stocks damaged by fish farms?

I have asked that so many times but no one answers that question for me, hopefully you will be the fist to do so.

just like the question i always ask Chris, can anyone tell me the positive environmental benefits of having the lice farms in the ocean, why have them there in the first place, why play russian roulette with our pacific ecosystem, what good is going to come out of it?, nobody has EVER given me an answer, let alone one that makes sense, buler?,buler?, buler?.....anyone?, not likely, cause there is NO POSITIVE BENEFIT, only negetive, and even when they are placed on land, there is still another problem, they will still be using the same food source, which is ridiculous as well... ..holmes*

other than a small financial benefit that goes to out of country interests I see no reason for these farms, the value of the product they sell is getting worse by the day and undervaluing other viable fisheries.

Likewise I would like to see any actual proof of negative impact caused by the farms.I have yet to see any conclusive evidence that they are actually harming anything.

Salmon runs collapsing? -Last 2 years shows that it's most likely ocean conditions after these 2 banner years.

Sludge under farms with nothing there? -Not sure what I would expect to find in an aphotic zone of the ocean. Not much of the ocean floor is inhabited.

Eating same food as wild stocks? -What about the MILLIONS of pinks the Chinese, etc release into the ocean for "salmon ranching" (much like enhancement hatcheries, except larger numbers and all are harvested when they come back) that we never hear about, which are actually competing with wild salmon for food. Farms have a strict limit of food fish they are allotted to catch every year. This is monitored very carefully. In fact, salmon farming has the most strict set of rules out of any farming/food producing operation.

Polluting the ocean?-Almost laughable. Way worse is the massive ball of trash floating around out there. Why does no one focus on that? Why focus on something that is producing organic waste?

One could argue the positive benefit is that they are taking pressure off wild stocks in the form of over fishing (to produce enough fish for a growing population).Financial contribution is also there, although I believe the financial contribution of wild salmon is far greater.

Wow Every Day! It's like someone has hijacked your user on this forum when it comes to your opinion on salmon farming. I had to go back into the "archives" here on FWR to re-read some of your posts on Salmon Farming just to see that I was reading this right. Your knowledge base sure has grown on the topic. I remember you being very confident that the dooms day predictions of Morton and her " save a wild fish/eat a wild fish" mentality, were fact. I know your not a pro salmon farm person still but at least you now know that there is a lot of negative BS out there that simply is not true.

Shame on Morton again for her fear mongering tactics which once again will likely see, are not true. They call her a Doctor? Why? She certainly does not behave like one. Biologist? More like Fearologist. That is all.

Good stuff Dan So let's see here ... pink salmon extinction, the decimation of Fraser sockeye, sea lice infestations, over use of antibiotics, killing the ocean floor, the yellow pink thingy (absolutely the worst mistake she made for any credibility, imo), this latest "pestilence" scare, etc, all kinda panned out.